


You're Nothing...But Not to Me

by Pixiepeekboo



Category: Star Wars, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Force Awakens - Fandom, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker
Genre: F/M, Fanfic, Short Story, kylo x rey - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-24 20:38:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20020675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixiepeekboo/pseuds/Pixiepeekboo
Summary: Reylo. Need I say more?





	You're Nothing...But Not to Me

Kylo Ren’s eyes are yellow – the shade of un-oxidized blood. The labyrinth of veins in his hands bulge, slowly darkening until blood perspires through his pores. He stretches both hands toward the sky, toward the Millennium Falcon breaking through the hemisphere. The instant it leaves the planet, he won’t be able to get Rey back. He knows, and a wild, flailing panic drives through him. He stretches his body as tall as he can, as if that can separate the thousands of miles between the two of them.  
Through the Force, he relinquishes his everything, submitting himself to the ebb and flow of it, until the majestic power flares through him and he can reach across the void now severing him from Rey to grab the ship. His hold is tentative, and the ship doesn’t slow. He snarls, the sound ripping out of him in a roar as he clenches his fists, nails gouging his palms. Blood bubbles against the wounds, but he pours every ounce of his energy, every borrowed drop of strength from the Force and in a single, devastating instant, he drags the Millennium Falcon out of the sky.  
As soon as the ship starts falling, he breaks contact, crashing backward into the sand. All he can do is watch as it plummets, a star of flame and smoke splitting the atmosphere, before it smashes against the ocean’s shoreline. The initial slam against the surface is loud enough to rupture Kylo’s eardrums. The left one pops, and he feels the blood trickling down his neck. He screams her name, running before he’s even aware of having moved, kicking up dust clouds behind him.  
Where the ship landed in the water is shallow, and the emergency controls on the ship should have spared the crew the brunt of the impact. But still, he's terrified of what he's done. Water splashes against his chest as he tears through the shallows, until he slams against the side of the ship. His fingers gouge through the metal, puncturing it and pulling little curlicues of silver with him. In a single tug, he tears an entire section of wall away and leaps inside.  
The emergency lights flash scarlet along the walkway. But there is no sound, no running feet. Everything is still. He closes his eyes, listening for Rey. Her heartbeat, her presence through the Force, radiates through the Millennium Falcon, unsteady – though whether it is from fear or injury, he cannot tell.  
Kylo flies through the ship, anchored to Rey. His shoulder slams against one of the survivors limping through the corridor. They are too disoriented to do more than lunge after him, fingers sweeping the space at his back. But he keeps his eyes fixed ahead. One of the archways is folded out of shape. He twists through it, heart pounding, until he comes to a stop in a tangled web of wires. They spit sparks through the red light. Snared in the thick of them, like an endangered species, Rey stands. The look in her eyes is quiet. Even connected as they are with the Force, Kylo finds it impossible to read what she's thinking.  
“Why didn’t you let me leave?” she screeches. She’s furious. The Force writhes around her, building at her back in a powerful, crushing mass. The ship groans in protest. She’ll crush them all inside, sardines flattened in a can if he doesn’t stop her. But she doesn’t understand, she still cannot understand why he would do this. She still sees him as the enemy. It doesn’t matter what he does to convince her otherwise. He will always be the villain. That doesn’t stop him from stepping forward, hand lifted, to split the wires choking the distance between them.  
“Rey,” he says.  
“No!” It comes out as a scream. The Millennium lurches and then plunges deeper in the water. Something broke; Kylo hears the water rushing through the cracks. It won’t take long before the ship fills with water. And if they’re still here when the First Order finds them, they’ll find themselves in a watery grave.  
“This could have been over. We could have left it behind us. You’re the one who said we needed to let the past go.” Her Lightsaber flies into her hand and she ignites it. The entire side of her face is painted with the blue of her blade. “I have let it go. I have let you go. I will not Turn!”  
Kylo flicks his hand up: the wires split and fling against the walls, dangling out of the way. He strides through the space between them. His Lightsaber is at his belt, but he will not draw it. Every time he has ever tried to use aggression against Rey, she has overpowered him. He feels it even now, the impossible, churning sea of strength in her. It is uncultivated, brutal – as savage as the planet of Jakku where she came from. The girl standing before him is a sandstorm, but he will not balk. He will plant his feet and wait it out. Because he will die before the First Order can have her. He is not leaving this planet without her at his side.  
“Rey, I haven’t come to Turn you. I am not your enemy.”  
She flings her blade between them, the blue light undulating across his face, down the black of his clothes. He inhales. The blade is so close to him his skin flinches against the heat of it, remembering the last time she sliced him. It is an absence of pain, being cut by a Lightsaber, echoed by the knowledge that there should be agony accompanied with it, but the saber burns straight through, past the nerves. He shudders and lifts his eyes to hers. She watches him fiercely.  
“Then why have you come? What did you think you were going to do, after you plucked my ship out of the sky and nearly killed me? Did you think I could ever trust you? That I could ever love you, after what you did to me? To everyone?”  
Kylo starts at the word. He shifts his feet. Water licks against his boots, steadily rising toward his ankles. The waterflow is growing stronger. He can hear the TIE fighters screaming across the sand. It won’t take them long to track the ship, if they haven’t already. They’ve received orders to kill on sight. But that cannot be what he’s come to. This cannot be his end.  
“I cannot pretend that I haven’t killed. That I haven’t shared in the bloodshed across the galaxies. But it was not only my troops, my allegiance that spilled blood, Rey. Do you know how many people were in those ships that your Rebellion incinerated?” He dares take a step closer, and now, all it would take for her to pierce him is a single thrust of the blade. The conflict flashes through her eyes. He feels her imagine it, striking him down, turning him to nothing but ash at her feet. She would be free of him, at first; she would think that they had won, until she stepped outside and saw the sky filled with a thousand ships and she would realize Kylo was no more than a tool, a weapon, in the hands of monsters. They had wielded him nearly his entire life, honed his skills to perfection. But he would not choose that anymore. He was done with them.  
Rey shakes her head. “You told me I was nothing.”  
Kylo reaches out, not for the Lightsaber, but to rest his hand against her face. Her eyes widen, but she doesn’t flinch, doesn’t run him through with the blade. She merely looks at him, watchful, wary. Every time they’ve ever gotten near each other, the power inside them erupted and led them to chaos. Kylo stifles it, shushes the Force to the back of his consciousness. He wants this moment to be just them.  
The water ripples up to their knees.  
“I was afraid,” he says carefully, “That if I told you you mean everything to me, you would kill me.”  
Rey’s chin wobbles. “Don’t lie to me, Ben Solo.”  
He scrapes his thumb across her cheek. “I have never lied to you,” he whispers. And then, he shows her, through the Force bond, glimmering and unbreakable and improbable between the two most unlikely allies in the entire galaxy, he shows her the single, final truth.  
He. Loves. Her.  
She lowers the blade, extinguishing it, though she does not return it to her belt. She blinks at him slowly, unbelieving.  
“I love you,” he says, bolder when she continues silent. He lifts his other hand to her face. “We were meant to rule the galaxy together, a perfect balance of the Force, a new era to the universe. It has always been about the Light versus the Dark, but I don’t believe that.”  
He strokes the locks of hair back from her face. All she can do is watch him, helpless as he leans still closer, until their breaths mingle. They are oblivious to the splash of water against their waists. “They were meant to exist as two in one. Rey.” He breaks off to press his mouth to her forehead. She sucks in a startled breath. He pulls back to look at her face, to make sure this is okay. If she doesn’t want him, then...he’ll have to let her go. He’ll have to. It will be the hardest decision he’s ever had to make, but he can face the First Order alone, if it means she’ll survive. He can let go of his future, that hopeful, distant thing. He shouldn’t have believed he could have it for an instant. He’s the product of violence; how could he have expected to receive the one thing he’s ever truly wanted?  
He starts pulling away from her when her hand catches him by the collar of his uniform and hauls him closer. “Ben,” she says. All his life he’s hated that name, but now, hearing it on her lips, it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever heard. She presses her forehead to his. And then, while his brain malfunctions, because she’s touching him, she hasn’t run away yet, she hasn’t killed him with her Lightsaber, what is this, does she trust him now, maybe he can convince her to leave in his ship, to make it out of here alive, she turns her face and kisses him. Against his mouth, she forms the words, and each of them spawn a galaxy of hope on their own.  
I. Love. You. Too.


End file.
